Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minster of State is repeating what he said. I will also repeat myself then. The reality is that we have to ask why ships are tied up and not at sea. Why are we not able to fulfil our obligations? Why are we so far away from our target of 9,500 people in the Defence Forces? The Minster of State spoke about what happened when Fianna Fáil was in government. He is falling back on that. The turnover in Defence Forces staff at that time was 10%. That is now up to 85%. People have been interviewed and stated that they are going to leave within the next couple of years. That is the reality and that is what he should be talking about, instead of giving us rhetoric about what happened back in 2008. That is the continual refrain.

It is his job to oversee the recruitment of people. I asked him previously about the provision of accommodation. There was always a tradition in towns with military barracks, such as Kilkenny, that people got housing. Could that type of provision be considered again? It might attract some recruits, especially those with families, into the Permanent Defence Force, given the housing crisis. The Minster of State can give us all the rhetoric he wants and list all of the things he did. The reality, however, comes back to the fact that there are ships tied up because of a lack of recruits to staff them.

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